"Work place rights are not for sale, worst choice jobs – beyond the pale Together we will never fail"

"Work place rights are not for sale, worst choice jobs – beyond the pale Together we will never fail"

januar 22 2018

The Association for promotion and protection of workers' rights Dignified Worker is formed in 2015, and their main goals and tasks are Protection and promotion of the rights of workers in accordance with the laws and the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia; Protection and safety at work in the textile industry, agriculture, trade and other activities; Identification and prevention of labor exploitation and protection of victims of trafficking; Cooperation with civil society organizations (NGO sector), foundations and trade unions working on protection and promotion of workers' rights; Protection against mobbing and discrimination of workers; Special protection for young workers, women, older workers and pensioners.

The members of the association have many years of experience in the field of protection of workers' rights and they have sections of young, women and retirees and expert commissions in the area of social and legal protection.

The team of ACTAC made an interview with Mr. Rubin Arizankoski, secretary in the organization, who has long previous experience in the work with syndicates and internally know their work. Rubin stated that the organization is implementing a project for "Institutional support for advancing the mechanism for protection of workers' rights in the local community" with general aim for the workers to be more educated with the problems and implementation of the labor law, the law for discrimination on the workplace and the mobbing as well.

The actual situation in Macedonia for protecting their rights on the workplace is on a very basic level, where the syndicates are not doing their job on implementing their job on protection the workers' rights. In the leadership of the syndicates there are many turmoil and fights for the president's position, where The labor union in Macedonia is involved in many judicial processes where it is not known who is the president of the Syndicate itself.

Rubin stated that for the actual companies that are foreign investments in Macedonia that enjoy great benefits from the country, tax releases, subsidies for new workers, etc...we still have a violation of the rights of workers because they are not allowed to form a trade union organization in the context of foreign investments. Such companies are Draexlmaier in Kavadarci, Gentherm in Prilep, Johnson Matthey in Skopje - which unfortunately, after 10 years of work in Macedonia, left the country. This cannot be allowed, such situations should not take place, the workers must have the right to be organized in Trade unions, with which they show their solidarity to fighting for their rights with the employers.

As a conclusion, our organization with the strategic plan 2018-2021 is calling all workers to report the abuses of labor exploitation, here in our premises and get legal counseling, as well as some other problems that our institutions are not covering, we are at their disposal. With that, our organization, thanks to the foundation Open Society in Macedonia, we are visible in our Local community where we are the initiators for forming the Local Economy council where we will give our support and contribution in interest of the workers, accenting the workers in the agro sector and textile industry.